Album of the Week: Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))

Survey closes at 11:59 PM tonight! Get your holiday album votes in if you haven't already! Once that's settled, the year's end festivities will start grinding into gear. I'm excited! Yay Record Club! Yay blogging!

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WEEK 254 — December 10-16, 2023

Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))

by jaimie branch

LISTEN:

Spotify | YouTube | Bandcamp | Apple

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PICKED BY AOTY.com

JOE'S COMMENTS: Like last week, we're not having an RC member choose this week's album. Instead, I'm trying to get a sense of what the top-ranked 2023 albums were, according to various metrics on the internet. AlbumoftheYear.org is a website that compiles all numerically-graded reviews for any particular album, and averages out the scores. You can then see which albums have the highest averages for any given year. This is the album that sits at #1 if you set it at "minimum five reviews." You can get a different answer if you set it to "minimum 20 reviews," but the top three albums in that case are all ineligible (Sufjan's new one, then The Land Is Inhospitable, then the record). I was also originally thinking about using Stereogum's yearly ranking, which was dropped on Tuesday, but we'd have to go down to #8 to get an eligible album (Olivia Rodrigo, billy woods, Mitski, boygenius are all RC alumni, and Wednesday, Ratboys, and Militarie Gun were all made ineligible in non-RC corners of the blog). So here we are, a true #1 (under very specific circumstances).

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ALBUM DETAILS

GENRE: Punk jazz, avant-garde jazz

RELEASED: August 25, 2023

LENGTH: 46:51

TRACKLIST:

1. aurora rising
   
2. borealis dancing
3. burning grey
4. the mountain
5. baba louie
6. bolinko bass
7. and kuma walks
8. take over the world
9. world war ((reprise))
   

LYRICS: not too many lyric sheets needed for this one, but the ones that exist are found on genius.com

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ARTIST DETAILS

PRONOUNS: she/her/hers

ABOUT: jaimie branch (who did not use capital letters in her name) was born on June 17, 1983, in Huntington, NY. By age nine, she was playing the trumpet. By age fourteen, her family had relocated to Wilmette (outside of Chicago). After attending the New England Conservatory of Music, she returned to Chicago, and became immersed in the local music scene. Described as "a gregarious figure," branch was known to friends by the nickname "Breezy." The list of jazz groups she either led or was a part of is quite extensive, if you wanna check it out. She is most well known outside of those local jazz circles for her solo work, backed by the Fly or Die Quartet. She passed away on August 22, 2022, at only the age of 39. She was almost finished her latest album, and family and friends and bandmates came together to finish it for her, and in process celebrate her life.

DISCOGRAPHY: As a solo artist, this is her third and final studio release, after 2017's Fly or Die and 2019's Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise (plus the 2021 live album Fly or Die Live). I also count fourteen collaborative albums, both studio and live (the distinction is less hardline when it comes to jazz).

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ADDITIONAL INFO

READING SOME SHIT: The NYTimes obit; Stereogum's monthly jazz column, which featured branch when this album was released

WATCHING SOME SHIT: performing live in 2018

PREVIOUSLY ON RECORD CLUB: We had the jazz conversation six weeks ago regarding Alice Coltrane; here is a fourth type of jazz for you (punk jazz). We had the "long album title" conversation twelve weeks ago regarding Mitski; here is your new longest RC album title of all time (only one single character more than the Arctic Monkeys album!). We had the "no capital letters" discussion five weeks ago regarding underscores; here is another lowercased name to add to the list (plus billy woods just last week). This is the second album with the word "fly" in it, after Supa Dupa Fly. This is the second album to have parentheses in it, after this is what ____ feels like (Vol. 1-4).

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Happy listening, RC family!
Have a great week!